In Consideration for My Actions While President of the United States

The show features a broadside created by artist Craig Pleasants, using 19th century technology – wooden type set by hand, a four-foot print hand-rubbed with a bamboo-leaf barren. The text of the piece written in the voice of George Washington asks the trustees of Washington and Lee University to pass on Washington’s $20,000 gift made to the university in 1796 to the people of Haiti. Washington allegedly makes the request to atone for his actions in support of the slave owners in their violent crackdown of the 1791 slave rebellion. The exhibition documents the development of the piece and includes related correspondence between Pleasants and members of the Washington and Lee University administration.

The background for the piece is based in fact and documented in a flyer written by Theodore Delaney, professor of History at Washington and Lee University.

Pleasants has exhibited widely in the United States and in Europe for over 30 years. His work has been seen at the Alternative Museum, White Columns, Artist’s Space and Berland/Hall Gallery in New York City; the Musee d'Art Contemporain in Marseille, France; the Kunst und Gewerveberein in Regensberg; Washington Project for the Arts; Maryland Art Place; the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts; the North Carolina Museum of Art; and the Jersey City Museum.

His architectural sculptures have been commissioned by art centers, museums, private schools, universities and recreation departments. He has received grants from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, the Virginia Commission for the Arts, the South Carolina Arts Council, the MacDowell Colony, VCCA and Art Matters. His artist's book The Three Little Pigs: as it was originally passed into English folklore in 1620 is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art and is one of the longest continuously running artworks on the world wide web, where it has been on view since 1996. He currently serves as artistic director for the VCCA, a working retreat for artists.